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Lam Research Corp. [stckqut]LCRX[/stckqut] on Wednesday announced a deal to buy KLA-Tencor Corp. [stckqut]KLAC[/stckqut] for $10.6 billion, the latest sign that consolidation pressures among chip makers have spread to their suppliers.

The two Silicon Valley companies rank among the biggest makers of equipment used in semiconductor manufacturing. Lam has focused on machines that deposit or etch away materials on the silicon wafers used to make computer chips. KLA-Tencor’s machines, by contrast, are used to spot defects in chips once the wafers are processed.

Such equipment makers have long been whipsawed by boom and bust cycles, as chip makers boost or cut back manufacturing capacity in response to demand. Acquisitions have been common over the years, as companies try to assemble a broader list of machines to sell customers.

Source: Chip merger frenzy continues with Lam purchase of KLA-Tencor

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Can you name a Fortune 500 company that doesn’t have a budget? Don’t spend too much time thinking about it – there aren’t any. Successful businesses around the world have one thing in common: Budgeting their money. And they do it because it works.

But although making money and making a budget appear to go hand-in-hand, a 2013 Gallup poll found that only one in three Americans prepared a detailed written or computerized household budget. Things may be improving somewhat: A Bankrate.com survey in 2015 found a much higher number said they budgeted (36% on paper and 26% on a computer or smartphone app). On the other hand, another 18% didn’t budget and a matching number answered yes to keeping the information “all in your head.”

If you’re one of the non-budgeters (or sketchy budgeters) the good folks over at Investopedia have some tools to show you how to get a better idea of how you spend your money by putting together – and sticking to – a personal budgeting plan.

Many people complain that they can’t create a budget because they don’t know exactly how much money they will earn in a given week. While it is true that workers earning an hourly wage or working on commission might not get the exact same dollar figure in each paycheck, the amount that you earn has much less to do with the basics of budgeting than the amount you spend. Instead of focusing on whether you earn enough each month, focus on your monthly spending. The question is simple: where does your money go?

Regardless of how much you earn or when you earn it, everybody has fixed expenses, such as the following:

  • Mortgage payments or rent
  • Transportation (car payment, gasoline, train or bus pass, etc.)
  • Utilities
  • Food
  • Insurance
  • Healthcare

If your recurring expenses don’t add up to the amount of your monthly income (and one would hope that they don’t), your next step should be to save the receipts from every purchase that you make next month and use them as the basis for creating additional categories or adjusting the numbers in the existing categories.

Despite its negative connotations, budgeting is really just a technique that can work to put your personal finances on the right track. If the most successful multi-million dollar companies must budget their spending, it makes sense that a typical household should have to control its expenses in a similar way. Budgeting your money need not be seen as a chore. After all, accepting the limits of your income is the best way to take control of your spending, live within your means and, ultimately, reach your financial goals.

Source: The Beauty of Budgeting

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Investing without understanding how your mind is making decisions is a waste of time. It’s also a waste of money.

Our mind has two systems that process information. It affects how we think, come up with decisions, act, and judge situations. This is crucial when you’re investing. The first is system one. I like to think of it as our “lazy brain.” System 1 is the part of the brain that reacts on intuition. It’s impulsive and automatic. It’s non-conscious.

For example, you might buy stock in a company just because they have a sexy new product out. You think it’ll change the way consumers behave. You don’t care to dig into the company’s financials or history right away. Your system one mind is drawn to the story and leads you to make an impulsive, lazy decision.

To explain this a little further, I’ll use the example from the book Thinking Fast and Slow:

A bat and a ball cost $1.10. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

More than likely, you said 10 cents. This is your system one working, but it’s incorrect. If you take a moment to do the math, you’ll find that the answer is five cents. So what happened? Your system one relied on impulse to answer the question you thought was simple.

How might this affect your investment decisions.

The second type is system two, and it’s more conscious. It requires effort. It’s the part of our brain that will allow us to focus our attention. We can then make deliberate, thought-out decisions. But it also requires that you set your impulses aside and concentrate.

Let’s take another look at the example above. If you’re using your system two, you may make a different decision on the stock. You may stop yourself from buying the stock after analyzing the company’s financials. Or you may notice they have many competitors and a small, unsustainable profit margin.

Source: Understanding Your Mind Will Make You A Better Investor – Money Under 30